As part of its IMAGINE social responsibility programme, and with the aim of promoting our devoted teams, who work day in, day out, to provide an exceptional apple, Pink Lady® held its first ever Pink Lady® Day on 20 October 2017.

Parliament opposes the European Commission’s proposal to renew the controversial herbicide licence for 10 years. Instead, MEPs say the EU should draw up plans to phase out the substance, starting with a complete ban on household use and a ban in use for farming when biological alternatives (i.e. “integrated pest management systems”) work well for weed control.

Reports

wValley Agricultural Group and Aviko Group, invested by the joint venture between the two leading potato product brands, have decided to once again team up with their long-term processing partner TOMRA Sorting Food, for the development of a new state-of-the-art French fry processing facility.

Both SnowValley and Aviko listed sustainability, quality and processing efficiency as an integral part of their business strategies, and echoing this vision, the 1.2bn RMB (€151m) joint venture aims to deliver the highest standard of potato products to the premium segment of the Chinese French fry market.The new potato processing facility, located at Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons and is expected to be completed by September 2018. TOMRA’s flagship Eco steam peeling line and the recently launched cutting-edge sorting platforms, TOMRA 5A and TOMRA 5B, will play important roles in the facility’s success.

Mr. Don Wang, President of Aviko SnowValley and Mr. Joop Van Drunen, General Manager of Aviko SnowValley, both remarks, “We are aiming to build an industry leading French fry processing line in China, that delivers the highest quality and performance, while also reducing waste and impact on the environment. TOMRA has collaborated successfully with both SnowValley and Aviko on previous projects for many years, and we know TOMRA’s solutions are reliable and efficient. We are confident TOMRA’s latest innovations and technologies will be the best choice for us.”

Steam peeling is the most efficient method of removing skin from the surface of vegetables and the latest Eco steam peeler is not only the fastest steam peeler, it is also the most energy efficient in the industry. The peeler uses 28 percent less steam than other peelers of its type and enables customers to peel high volumes of potatoes at very low steam times, with exceptionally low peel loss and waste.

Steven van Geel, regional sales director, China, TOMRA Sorting Food, says: “We are very pleased that the Aviko and SnowValley joint-venture selected TOMRA’s latest ground-breaking peeling and sorting technology to achieve their goal to build an industry leading processing line. Quality and reliability are cornerstones of our innovation and we will utilize our global expertise and local resources to make the project a success from both economical and food-safety perspectives.”

The TOMRA 5A whole potato sorter removes various defects and foreign material, such as stones, soil, glass and plastics, minimizing the risk of food contamination down the processing line and protecting critical processing components, such as the hydro cutters or fryer. With a peel control module, the TOMRA 5A can evaluate the peeling status of potatoes while sorting them and automatically calculate an optimal steam time. Consequently, the result is lower peel loss with no operator supervision required.

As part of its IMAGINE social responsibility programme, and with the aim of promoting our devoted teams, who work day in, day out, to provide an exceptional apple, Pink Lady® held its first ever Pink Lady® Day on 20 October 2017.

Parliament opposes the European Commission’s proposal to renew the controversial herbicide licence for 10 years. Instead, MEPs say the EU should draw up plans to phase out the substance, starting with a complete ban on household use and a ban in use for farming when biological alternatives (i.e. “integrated pest management systems”) work well for weed control.

In general the grape market is short, or is going to be very soon. California is short and according to people in the trade, Europe is short and will finish early. Brazil are shipping and Peruvian grapes are around, if not in large numbers yet. The last of the Greek whites are hanging about and even reds this year are forecast to end early.